…knit happens!

Glade is firmly back on the agenda now my elbow is better and the the Space Invaders are finished.

The pictures are not very exciting and I think there is a problem with the pattern 😯 …

First the progress report.

…I’m STILL slogging though the hem edging around the bottom edge…
I’ve gone from this….

to this…..

to this….

..and now this!

Slog!! 🙂

You may remember from Glade from the Waist up that I signed off looking forward to “just 7 repeats to go around the bottom edge”! That was calculated from carefully looking at the pattern pictures. Hmmmmmm…….

The eagle eyed of you may have noticed I’m starting on repeat number 8!

“So what’s the problem?”, I hear you cry.

Well…The pattern calls for 14 balls for the 34″ (second) size. So far I have used 17 and still chomping through the yarn!

Yes, my tension is correct. Although the tension given on the pattern is only for the main body’s stocking stitch.

Given that I’m using one ball for just under 1.5ish pattern repeat on this edging, I’m going to need about 19 or 20 balls. That’s a huge difference from 14! 👿
“Arrrgh, I’m not going to be able to get more of the same dyelot! It’s ruined!:cry:”

Luckily, the super efficient people at Cumberpatch answered my pleading “have you got this dyelot?” email within a couple of hours and have sent me the extra yarn. Phew – disaster averted… 🙂 I now have 20 balls….If I’d known Glade was going to cost me this much I would have thought twice about making it.
So why am I using so much extra yarn?

I figure that there are four possibilities.

I’m a complete dimwit and my tension had suddenly gone off the scale

The pattern has the wrong yarn amounts published

My cats have started having midnight yarn eating parties

The given needle size for the hem edging is wrong – 3mm?

Number 1: I hate to brag but I don’t think so – I not sure it’s humanly possible to get your tension so wrong you’d use a third more yarn!

Number 2: Quite possible.

Number 3: Thug and Mewsley have been interrogated and lightly tortured with the threat of no extra meaty treats for a month. They swear they are not eating yarn. I believe them.

Number 4: This is my favourite theory. The main body is on 3.75mm needles. It’s a huge jump to go down to 3mm for the edging. Also, I have scrutinised the picture in the pattern book and in this month’s Simply Knitting (Glade is on the cover and the pattern is free – Grrr – I paid for it!). My edging looks much tighter – OK it looks good and the effect of the garment will still be super but I think there is a difference.

What do you think?

Simply knitting close up….

My edging close up…

I’ve emailed Rowan. They have been fab at sorting out queries and problems for me in the past. I’ve asked what the tension should be for the edging – I do think it was sloppy not to publish tension details for what is the major part of the garment.

I’ll let you know when I hear if there is a problem or it is option Number 1 ………I am a dimwit! 😮

I vote for ‘wrong needle size’. The Simply Knitting edging looks a lot longer. The bobbles are more spaced out vertically. What if you did an edging swatch with the larger needles? (I am saying this with 0 knowledge of how many stitches you have to cast on & how much you hate the idea of knitting yet more edging).

You could just press on, I think your version looks a lot crisper than the SK one. You might end up with a better garment. Then you could pretend you did it on purpose – always a bonus!